Chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary artery disease, cause about seventy percent of deaths and result in well over a trillion dollars in health care spending each year in the United States alone. In addition to the direct costs in health care, chronic medical conditions are a significant burden to the economy, through limitations in daily activities, lost productivity, and employee absenteeism.
Conventional chronic care techniques often involve prescribing a regimen that a chronic care patient is supposed to follow in between follow-up visits with a health care practitioner (e.g., a doctor or other chronic care provider). Unfortunately, many patients fail to follow these regimens because the health care practitioner is unable to constantly monitor and encourage them in between the follow-up visits. As a result, their chronic medical conditions worsen over time, thereby increasing the cost of caring for them (e.g., in the form of frequent emergency room visits) and inhibiting their ability to live a healthy and productive life.